Date:  Thu, 2 Nov 1995 09:31:04 -0500

From:  Wayne Glowka <wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MAIL.GAC.PEACHNET.EDU>

Subject: Re: Sulking Over Silky Milk & Other Words of That Ilk



>From:  NAME: David Bergdahl

>    FUNC: English

>    TEL: (614) 593-2783          <BERGDAHL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]A1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LANCE>

>To:   MX%"ADS-L[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uga.cc.uga.edu"[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAX[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MRGATE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAX

>

>Am I wrong to take exception to the inclusion of words like <talk> in the

>discussion of the loss of /l/? Is my historical linguistics outdated or didn't

>Elizabethan English fill the "slot" left by the raising of "long open o" to /o/

>by converting {AL} and {AU/W} words like <talk>, <daughter>, <law>?

>

>Margaret Schlauch. The English Language in Modern Times, p. 45: "au in Germanic

>words, derived from a+w, remained a diphthong for a time, as in <law> and

><saw>;

>simplification occurred later to [long open o] by way of [open o diphthongized

>to U]."

>

>Thomas Pyles, Origins & Development, 2nd ed., p. 189: "The <l> of Middle

>English

>preconsonantal <al> was lost after first becoming a vowel: thus Middle English

><al> and <au> fell together as <au>, ultimately becoming [long open o](as in

><talk>, <walk>) except befere <f>, <v>, and <m>, where it became [long low

>front

>digraph] in such words as <half>, <salve>, and <psalm>."

>

>So aren't we REALLY talking about the re-introduction of an /l/ from the

>spelling analogous to disyllabic <forehead>?



Basically, yes, but I wonder if it really ever disappeared in some

dialects. How did Pyles and Schlauch arrive at these conclusions? One of

the most disturbing classes I took at the Univ. of Texas was a Middle

English dialects class. Every day we discovered that the dialect

descriptions in our HEL class were very convenient (hell, and elaborate)

fictions.



I have a similar problem every day as I listen to people around me.

Southerners all sounded the same to me until I lived around them. What

they say and how they say it is a function of way too many variables--age,

sex, class, experiences, education, race, etc. I think Henry Higgins was

an out-and-out liar about his abilities to place a person within two

streets of some place in London by speech alone. I defy him to do the same

in Milledgeville.

*********************************



So the list above ( <half>, <salve>, and <psalm>) strikes me as very

interesting. I get few students who put up much of an argument that <half>

has an /l/, a word that has also fallen together with the <path> and

<grass> group in British English. I've never tried having anyone

transcribe <salve>, but I rarely hear anyone under sixty use the word.

However, I wonder if anyone who uses it and does not pronounce the <l> also

has no /l/ in <salvation>. Further, I never actually hear anyone say

<psalm> (like <Sam> [s[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]m]), but I do hear [sam] and [salm], the latter with

a clearly pronounced /l/. In fact, I say [salm]. I hear /l/ in <balmy> a

lot, but never hear <balm> pronounced one way or the other at all since

<lotion> and <creme/cream> seem to be the preferred terms. If someone said

[bami] I would not immediately know what that person was saying. Is it in

_South Pacific_ in which there is a song that rhymes <army> and <balmy>?

When I first heard this rhyme, I thought it was a far-fetched joke since

I'm neither r-less or l-less in these words.



**********************************

Rhymes (discounting stress assignments) for me:



psalm balm calm napalm (with /al/)



Sal salvation salmonella (with /[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]l/)



Sam salmon (/[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]/ with no /l/)



halve salve calve (/[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]/ with no /l/)



half calf (/[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]/ with no /l/)



walk talk baulk/balk caulk chalk (open-o with no /l/ but with an off-glide)



milk silk ilk (with /l/)





I have /l/ in <wolf>, <elm>, and <film>, but have heard the l-less

varieties many, many times.



This post is too long for me,



















Wayne Glowka

Professor of English

Director of Research and Graduate Student Services

Georgia College

Milledgeville, GA 31061

912-453-4222

wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]mail.gac.peachnet.edu